Embassy Continues Outreach to Explain Visa Waiver and ESTA to Slovak Public

November 13, 2008

With a little over three days before Slovaks may begin traveling on the Visa Waiver Program, Embassy Bratislava put on a public demonstration of ESTA in cooperation with the Ministry of Interior. Vice Consul Ann Meceda and Information Officer Keith Hughes briefed journalists and gave interviews on what VWP is, how a person qualifies to travel visa-free and how the Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) works. With a laptop set up for those who wished to try registering with ESTA, the first in line was a senior citizen with family in the United States she wanted to visit. Vice Consul Meceda explained to her the procedure and at the end the prospective traveler said, "It's so easy!" Another passerby logged on to the ESTA site and within five minutes had finished entering the information and received authorization to travel. Markiza Television, the most watched station in Slovakia, interviewed him immediately after, during which he described how easy the process was. Stanislav Jankovič, Vice President of the Slovak Police Force, was on hand to describe to reporters how Slovaks can tell if they hold a biometric passport and how they may apply for one. The two-hour long event attracted every major Slovak television station, all the wire services and several Internet news and video sites.